Compared to last time, I brought along a Fireblade instead of a Crisis Commander as my warlord. This is a difference of about 120 points, which was well spent on extra Troops in the form of Firewarriors.
To accomodate another squad of Firewarriors, I left 3 of the stealth suits at home and as such, only took 3. This allows them to be more stealthy and less of an attention magnet. Apart from some changes in armament, those were the only major changes in my army list. So:
+ 20 Firewarriors and Fireblade
- 3 Stealth suits and Crisis Commander
Read on to find out how my list did against the same Tyranid list as last time... (both lists can be found in this post and its comments)
Rolling on the deployment table, we got a Vanguard Strike (or whatever it is called) deployment, using 2 of the corners of the board as deployment zones.
We set up the table in our usual 6th ed. fashion, rolling a D3 for each 2' square and each placing a piece of terrain in turn until the D3 limit of terrain pieces per square was set or we both agree it's enough terrain.
The idea of the "relic" being placed in a big honking terrain piece seemed like a good idea, and it allowed us to use my (oversized) Shrine of the Aquila. (FYI, that base is 1' square, and there's actually another base just like it, with the other side of that ruined building on it, but we thought one of them would be enough to show the importance of the "relic" and allow a nasty fight in the center of the board)
I won the roll off to choose to go first and that's exactly what I did, so I deployed my entire army except for the Kroot, as I wanted to infiltrate them as close as possible to the objective. The Stealth suits were also to be infiltrated, more along the back line, for harassment purposes.
The Firewarrior squad with devilfish were deployed on my right flank, with only a squad of 5 pathfinders further on the flank. While the remaining squads of Firewarriors took up a firing line in the center, they were joined by the Fireblade. In the back field, the Broadsides took up firing positions on a piece of ruined manufactorum, which also gave cover to the 2 Crisis Suits with missile pods and the Hammerhead was also parked there. The left flank was to be held by the Riptide, accompanied by the second squad of Pathfinders.
Dries deployed his 20 Gargoyles in the center, flanked by both of the Tervigons. The squad of Termagants was scuttling around the base of the Tervigon on his right flank, accompanied by the squad of 3 Hive Guard. His flying Tyrant was deployed behind the main battleline. The rest of the army was kept in reserves: Mycetic Spore with Doom of Malantai (insert some " ' "s), Mycetic Spore containing 20 Termagants with devourers and 5 Ymgarl Genestealers.
I then deployed my infiltrators, plonking my Kroot into the center ruin and my Stealth suits all the way in the corner at the far end of my long table edge. Both Pathfinder squads took up better positions with their scout moves.
Then, the battle was joined and in my first turn, the Kroot climbed onto top of the building to grab the "relic" and the rest of my army took down the entire Hive Guard squad, put two wounds on a Tervigon and killed about half of the gargoyles even though two of my firewarrior squads weren't even in range. Good start!
Dries' first turn saw a lot of bugs moving forward, trying to get to grips with the squishy Tau. The Kroot took fire from the short-ranged guns of the Nids and died in droves. One lucky individual remained standing and courageously held on to the "relic". The cluster spines (I think) of a Tervigon scattered wildly off of the Kroot and killed several Termagants and Gargoyles instead... unfortunately for Dries, this was not the first and last time the dice gods failed him miserably... more sacrifices are needed before the next battle.
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| Table setup and army positions during Dries' first movement phase. The Ring Wraith is a proxy for the Flying Tyrant; Dries is in the final stages of moving apartments, so part of his army was in the location he wasn't. You can just make out the Stealth Shas'vre in the bottom right of the picture. |
The swooping Tyrant was shot at by the Stealth suits and did not take damage, however, Dries failed the grounding test and the beast took a wound from falling down. The rest of my right flank made quick work of the struggling Tyrant, helped in great part by Dries failing all or almost all of his armor saves and FnP rolls. Dice weren't rolling so well for my buddy...
Second turn saw all of his reserves hit the table. The Ymgarls popped up in the center ruin, 1 inch away from my Relicbearer Kroot, which they promptly ate. Both Mycetic Spores landed right in my battleline's face, disgorging the hugely annoying Doom and 20 Termagants. I rolled surprisingly well for the Ld checks on 3D6 that the Doom required me to make and only 2 Firewarriors succumbed while a Crisis Suit took one wound.
The newly arrived Termagants used their 3 shots each to kill 9 of the 10 Firewarriors in the Fireblade's squad. The remaining gargoyles went on to nom nom the squad of Pathfinders in the crater while the spawned Termagants clambered into the center ruin to bolster the genestealer assault.
Let's speed things up...
Using the Tau's famed mobility, my guys tried to get out of the way of the Doom and started shooting the newly popped up threats, killing the 20 Termagants (eventually) and one of the Mycetic spores while the rest of the army shot up the genestealers and the remaining Gargoyles. The Fireblade joined the healthy Firewarrior squad, leaving the lonely Firewarrior of his first squad to fend for himself "For the Greater Good".
In a dramatic move, the surviving Tervigon spawned 16 babies (and ran out) which made their way towards the Stealth Suits that were by now in the enemy deployment zone. The massive beast then went on to ram its way into the ruin to claim the "relic" for herself, hoping to secure it for long enough to claim victory. The Doom killed a broadside and the 2 missile drones, leaving the remaining broadside on one wound. A couple of Firewarriors also succumbed to the devastating power of the alien creature.
Planning on shooting the Doom into oblivion, I spread out my force even more, but then took a minute to ponder the victory conditions. I had won a point for First Blood, Slay the Warlord and (currently still) Linebreaker. Dries only had Linebreaker but also had the "relic", which is worth 3 points. So the only surefire way to secure victory was to rob him of the "relic". It didn't matter if I could capture the "relic", but I had to kill the Tervigon in the coming two turns.
All guns were pointed in that direction and after another bucket of crappy rolls by Dries, the Tervigon was dead along with all of the Termagants in the ruin. The Doom was vaporized by a Heavy Rail Rifle shot of the surviving broadside, failing another save roll. In turn, the Stealth Suits were eaten by the last spawned squad of Termagants.
The battle ended shortly after. Resulting in a 2-0 win for my Tau!
This incarnation of my army list was far better than the previous one. The smaller Stealth suit and Pathfinder squads make them easier to fly under the radar and the 20 extra guns I brought with the Firewarriors are really necessary to make this army work. That being said, Dries' abysmal dice rolling certainly helped as well ;)
Kudo's to Dries for still putting up a good fight after taking a brutal pummeling in the first 2 turns.
After all, a hard fought and very enjoyable game and I'm sure this will not stay without revenge :P
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